I have broken/tacoed Stan's rims and I am old and not very heavy. These rims are rock solid as far as I am concerned. I have ridden them hard and put them up wet with no issues. I just ordered my 3rd set so I am putting my money where my mouth is. I have 4 sets of STans rims in all the models (ARCH, FLOW, CREST) and before these, Stan's were the best. Stan's are still great, but I am liking these better. Of the Stans rims I likes the CREST the best, but this year alone, I tacoed a Crest and blew the tire completely off a Crest. The Crest are still lighter than these with the rim strip, but these are way lighter than the Arch's and Flow's. I have not managed to break an Arch or Flow but the Arch's aren't wide enough and the Flow's are heavy. The new FlowEx are only about 100 grams heavier, but for me the almost hold the tire too wide for the kind of riding I do. For those that need really wide the FlowEx might still be the answer, but for me, these rims are the best I have found.

If you want to know how much testing I have done, I just looked at my spreadsheet and I have ridden almost 5000 miles this year and 2500 was single speed and over 1200 of that was full rigid SS. Just over a thousand was road so that leaves 1500 geared MTB split within 5 miles of even between FS and HT. So 4000 miles this year was on Stans or these rims and in that time I had the 2 Stans failures discussed above and so far none for these rims.

There is an invoice in my inbox for a set of the wider LB wheels to be built with DT Swiss Super Comps on the d711sb/d712sb. I am only waiting to verify that at least the front hub can be converted to a through axle. A qr15 specifically. There seems to have been a recent change in the hub that allows this but I was wanting to confirm. Anyone have a recent set that can set the record straight?
Thanks

Does this mean that I can't order these wheels with 15mm QR Novatec (D711/D712SB) in the front? I've heard a couple bad things about the 8xx Novatecs freewheel failing, so this is bad news if true that the 7xx hubs don't come ready to run 15mm QR....

Anyone try mounting Bontrager TLR tires on these rims? Do they mount up easily?

It depends on what you have in the rims. With tape only, anything will mount pretty easily. With TLR strips like many people are using (including me), the fit can be tight, but I haven't had any issues mounting a tire yet, including a Bonty TLR tire.

So Nancy confirmed that there isn't 15mm front option on the front Novatec 711 hub. It looks like the 811/812 hubs are much heavier. I did try to contact Novatec NA via email with no success and Nancy made it sound like Novatec doesnt currently make the 15mm endcap but is planning to sometime in 2013. I need to pull the trigger now, so that won't help me.
Does anyone have any info on where to get the endcap for the 711 hub or what hubs i cld buy seperately and build up for a similar weight and price as the complete LB wheelset?

The problem with building them up separately for the similar price is that you end up buying the spokes in small quantities and decent ones cost over $1 each by the time you pay shipping (although they would be higher quality spokes). The other problem with keeping it the same price is that most of the hubs that can be converted are higher end hubs and cost more money (although they will generally be lighter). The 3rd problem is that if you are not building the wheels yourself, it probably costs them around $5 per wheel in labor to build in China.
Personally, I would buy the rims and build what I wanted (although I can build my own) but there is a guy here that has built hundreds of wheels that will do them for $25 each and I can buy the parts myself of through him at a discount from retail.

The problem with building them up separately for the similar price is that you end up buying the spokes in small quantities and decent ones cost over $1 each by the time you pay shipping (although they would be higher quality spokes). The other problem with keeping it the same price is that most of the hubs that can be converted are higher end hubs and cost more money (although they will generally be lighter). The 3rd problem is that if you are not building the wheels yourself, it probably costs them around $5 per wheel in labor to build in China.
Personally, I would buy the rims and build what I wanted (although I can build my own) but there is a guy here that has built hundreds of wheels that will do them for $25 each and I can buy the parts myself of through him at a discount from retail.

Dans comp has sapim double butted for about .50/each. They also dont charge extra for the non standard lengths (most spokes only come in odd or even lengths and most places charge to cut to the non standard length).

I bought the light bicycles AM rims and did my first wheel build maybe two weeks ago. I have about 4 rides on my front wheel and 1 ride on the rear so not enough to tell about durability, but I can definitely feel the difference in climbing and downhill over my WTB frequency i23. The first wheel build took about 6 hours, the second took about 2. I definitely am getting faster. I took them to the LBS to ensure that they were tensioned properly and the LBS said they looked great.

I bought a used chris king hub for $90, plus $70 for an axle kit to convert to 142X12. The total cost was about $650 ( not including the truing stand, spoke wrenches etc that I had to buy).

Weight wise I only dropped about a pound from the i23s.

I used one layer of 1" gorilla tape and mounted a hans dampf 2.35 on the front and a maxxis ardent 2.25 on the back mounted tubeless. I used an air compressor to seal the bead on both of them and used stans (although Im going to switch to orange seal as it is much better than stans in sealing large gashes).

Since Im relatively new to mtb (about 6 months) I wasnt sure what to expect. However I can definitely feel the difference. There is one particular hill that I bomb down, the bike (tallboy LTC) just totally railed. The i23 were fine, but the new wheels had a new level of confidence and stability. I wouldnt pay $2000 for the improvement, but 650 is fine.

Climbing is also better. There are a couple of climbs that I sometimes miss, with the new wheels Im not even close to missing them. There is one climb that I have only made once and I did it both times I tried it today.

Today is the first day that I rode front and back. It is probably my imagination but I did two laps (11 miles/lap) today on one of my normal loops and at the end of the second lap I felt like I could easily do a 3rd. It could just have been one of those good days where everything aligns. Ill report back as I get more ride time.

Correct. The 711's that can be 15mm are not yet available AFAICT. That is from communicating with nancy at LB and a guy in Taiwan that has a wan store sell novatec hubs and end caps etc.

I bailed and got a good deal on the alloy Rovals.

Once the new 711 start shipping these will be very very loud on my radar.

Originally Posted by craigebaker

Does this mean that I can't order these wheels with 15mm QR Novatec (D711/D712SB) in the front? I've heard a couple bad things about the 8xx Novatecs freewheel failing, so this is bad news if true that the 7xx hubs don't come ready to run 15mm QR....

My Light Bicycles 29er UD matte finish rims arrived today and from what I can tell (which isnt much) they seem well constructed.

I plan to get these built up in the next few weeks and then can compare them to my Enve wheels.

My question is what is the best tubeless setup to use on these rims? they are the AM tubeless version (BTW)

Evne tape- I think I would need to get the wider version of the gorilla tape. Is this best for these rims?
Stans yellow- Light, do they hold well or are the rims too wide for this light tape to work?
bontrager strips- I believe I would need the Rhythm model of strips. Seem to work well on my RXL rims do they make mounting tires easier or more difficult with the rim profile?

My Light Bicycles 29er UD matte finish rims arrived today and from what I can tell (which isnt much) they seem well constructed.

I plan to get these built up in the next few weeks and then can compare them to my Enve wheels.

My question is what is the best tubeless setup to use on these rims? they are the AM tubeless version (BTW)

Evne tape- I think I would need to get the wider version of the gorilla tape. Is this best for these rims?
Stans yellow- Light, do they hold well or are the rims too wide for this light tape to work?
bontrager strips- I believe I would need the Rhythm model of strips. Seem to work well on my RXL rims do they make mounting tires easier or more difficult with the rim profile?

My Light Bicycles 29er UD matte finish rims arrived today and from what I can tell (which isnt much) they seem well constructed.

I plan to get these built up in the next few weeks and then can compare them to my Enve wheels.

My question is what is the best tubeless setup to use on these rims? they are the AM tubeless version (BTW)

Evne tape- I think I would need to get the wider version of the gorilla tape. Is this best for these rims?
Stans yellow- Light, do they hold well or are the rims too wide for this light tape to work?
bontrager strips- I believe I would need the Rhythm model of strips. Seem to work well on my RXL rims do they make mounting tires easier or more difficult with the rim profile?

Any feedback or correction would be helpful.

I also recently got a pair of the LB wider carbon rims in UD/Matte. Built and set them up tubeless last week. I used the bontrager rhythm rim strips due to all the recommendations. The strips fit the rims perfectly, and seem to make them more of a UST setup than tape would. Tires are fairly hard to get on/off with the strips installed, probably more so than if I would've just used tape.

One 3.5+ hour ride on them and all is good. Using the same hubs/spokes (king/wheelsmith DB14) as my crest/355 wheelset these definitely feel stiffer. Planning to use them as my XC race wheelset for next year. Not super light but hopefully fairly bombproof and stiff.

Oh man, just pulled the trigger on a complete wheelset from Nancy. Wide rims, matte, 12k, and thru axles front and back.

I guess I'll be keeping this bike for a while. I really wanted to go back to 26in wheels but I tacoed a wheel last week on my Rumblefish and I definitely do not have the funds for a new bike. There was lots of debating on to just rebuild my wheel or upgrade. Finally decided on the upgrade. Hope it was the right choice...

Tell us more...

Originally Posted by erikrc10

Oh man, just pulled the trigger on a complete wheelset from Nancy. Wide rims, matte, 12k, and thru axles front and back.

I guess I'll be keeping this bike for a while. I really wanted to go back to 26in wheels but I tacoed a wheel last week on my Rumblefish and I definitely do not have the funds for a new bike. There was lots of debating on to just rebuild my wheel or upgrade. Finally decided on the upgrade. Hope it was the right choice...

I'm considering a Nancy race-day-only wheelset. Now that the new Roval set is available I'm waffling. Do tell....

1. How was it dealing with them? I've done online chat with their man Brian and his English was perfect.
2. What were the hub options?
3. Were you given options for spokes and nipples?
4. Did they promise a specific weight?
5. How long until delivery?

Thanks for your time.

I dreamed I ate a 10 lb marshmallow. When I awoke, my pillow was gone.

Oh man, just pulled the trigger on a complete wheelset from Nancy. Wide rims, matte, 12k, and thru axles front and back.

I guess I'll be keeping this bike for a while. I really wanted to go back to 26in wheels but I tacoed a wheel last week on my Rumblefish and I definitely do not have the funds for a new bike. There was lots of debating on to just rebuild my wheel or upgrade. Finally decided on the upgrade. Hope it was the right choice...

Yeah, dunno what you had before, but I immediately noticed how much stiffer the NancyWide Carbon 29er rims were than my WTB SpeedDisc rims or my DT Swiss X470 rims... and they're 60 grams lighter to boot! They feel way more point and shoot through the rocky and off camber parts of the trail I regularly ride.

Bonus points for being wider, and allowing a wider tire footprint at lower pressure.

I think you'll really dig 'em. I would just suggest that you go over them with micrometer eyes when you get first take them out of the box to be sure nothing stands out in the quality control department.

I'm starting to queue up to get another pair of NancyWide AM29er rims. I just found a smoking deal on a DT Swiss 240s rear hub, get another Circus Monkey Lefty front hub, spokes and nipples, and I'm in.

Nancy's English has been very good, you can tell it is not her native language but everything is clearly communicated. During their business hours her emails are extremely quick (reply within 15-30 mins). I ordered this morning and haven't gotten an email from her yet, just the auto response one saying they received the order. They are on the other side of the world though so it's certainly not during business hours. I expect one from her sometime tonight.

Their hub options aren't that great, you are pretty much limited to the Novatec offerings but they are suppose to be getting DT hubs in sometime soon. They are currently trying to work out prices with there supplier.

I honestly didn't put to much thought into spokes or nipples but they do explain why they use what spokes they use and you can get different ones on request and I'm not sure about nipples.

If you want a custom build I would recommend just buying the rims yourself. If I had more money I would have gotten a set of Hopes or something along that line but these were $666 (I hope that price isn't a sign of anything...) delivered to my door. I was struggling to find a set new flows for much less and I couldn't find a truly bad review about LB so I thought why not.

The weight is claimed at 1500g +/-15. We will see what they come in at once they get here. My old wheelset (Bontrager Duster) I don't know the weight of but I know it was above 2000g so regardless it will be a big improvement.

The site claims 10 days to get the wheels built up and complete and then shipping is suppose to take anywhere from 4-7 days. I asked Nancy if that was accurate and she said it was. I will definitely report as to when they actually get here though.

I'm a pretty light guy, 6ft and weigh probably about 140-145lbs when geared up, so I don't notice flex a whole lot but I definitely ride pretty aggressively. Probably harder the then the Rumblefish was designed for, so we will see how these wheels hold up.

Any updates on this?

Originally Posted by fire_strom

Bad break there. What do you think an arch ex rim might have done? Big dent or roll over?

I found a supplier that deals with novatec parts. rbopbicycles or something. I think I googled "Novatec end caps". They're in Taiwan but were good with email. Said they didn't think the older versions of the 711sb hub would take the new end caps which they didn't even have yet. I think the new version of the hubs are not yet available. I asked Nancy if she could check on their availability. If I can't get the convertible ones I may punt on the whole carbon thing and get an arch ex set on the 3.30 hubs. I think they'd be about 150g heavier than the LB wider set on 711/712's but $200 less too. I suppose I could just wait a couple months for the winter to start then end and the hubs to be released.

Has Nancy updated you on availability of the 711 hub with 15mm end caps yet? All the other hubs appear much heavier, so won't work for XC racing. Are the Rotaz hubs a suitable substitute for the Novatec 711/712?

Has Nancy updated you on availability of the 711 hub with 15mm end caps yet? All the other hubs appear much heavier, so won't work for XC racing. Are the Rotaz hubs a suitable substitute for the Novatec 711/712?

The US Novatec site shows the 711 with the end cap adaptors. D711SB (FH) - Novatec Maybe they're on the slow boat to China...wait a minute...now I'm really confused.

I dreamed I ate a 10 lb marshmallow. When I awoke, my pillow was gone.